Mass Media [Borrowed Theory]

Any form of communication in which a large number of people are receiving a mediated message is what we can call mass communication. From television and radio, to the Internet, newspaper and magazines, these are all forms of media in which these messages are communicated through, thus becoming mass media.

But what types of mediated messages are we talking about? It can be anything!!! Telling people how they should dress, how much they should weigh, what they should buy, what will make them happy, etc.

It makes you think that through mass media we are being controlled, doesn’t it? Maybe we are.

Wanting to do some background research, I read Neil Postman’s, Amusing Ourselves to Death, and learned something very interesting regarding Orwell’s novel, 1984, and Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World. Orwell warns about a world in which we are controlled by the “Big Brother” and what we hate is what will destroy us. Ruxley, on the other hand, argues that it is all this mass communication and forms of media that will destroy us. In short, what we love will bring us to our end. How can we learn to become our own unique person when subconsciously we are receiving mediated messages through objects we don’t even see as dangerous. We can become so absorbed by television, magazines, msn, facebook, etc. that we’ll ignore the real world around us, falling victim to become clones of the media.

Clones of the media. Hmmm, I like that. Perhaps I should write my own theorizing novel…

Works Cited

Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death : Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. New York: Penguin (Non-Classics), 1986.